Colombian police say former Haitian official Badio gave order to assassinate Moïse

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The Colombian Police asserted this Friday (16) that those accused and arrested for the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse received the orders to assassinate the president after a meeting three days before the crime with former official of the Haitian Ministry of Justice, Joseph Felix Badio.

“‘Several days before, apparently three, Joseph Felix Badio, who was a former official of the Ministry of Justice who worked in the anti-corruption commission with the General Intelligence Service, indicated to (Duberney) Capador and (Germán) Rivera that what they had to do was to assassinate the president of Haiti,” said today (16) in a public statement the director of the Colombian Police, General Jorge Luis Vargas.

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Moïse was assassinated last July 7 at his residence in Port-au-Prince in an armed attack where his wife, Martine, was also wounded. So far 23 people have been arrested, including 18 Colombian ex-military personnel and five Haitian-American citizens, and precautionary measures have been applied against 24 agents and those responsible for the presidential security units.

The Colombian police reiterated that investigations indicate that the retired Colombian Army sergeant Capador, who died in Port-au-Prince, participated in meetings between ‘people working for the company CTU Security Services’ and the one considered by the Haitian authorities to be the head of the plot, Emmanuel Sanon, a US-based doctor.

The retired captain of the Colombian Army, Germán Rivera, was informed ‘of this meeting for the initial contracting of some security services’, Vargas pointed out, and after them, the plane tickets were bought through the company Worldwide Capital, of the Ecuadorian Walter Veintemilla, so that ‘the rest of the people who would join the group that had already been there since May’ could enter Haiti.

The Colombian Police assures that initially four people traveled for these ‘security services’ from the end of April and May, then they were joined by 20 more people in June who provided ‘security services in groups of seven’ for three weeks.

Already in June, “in a meeting with Joseph Felix Badio and a person called ‘Ascar’, German Rivera and Duberney Capador are informed that the president is going to be arrested,” Vargas said.

The group moved to a house near the presidential residence, acquired several vehicles and “began criminal training.”

But it was not until three days later that Badio told Capador and Rivera that they were to assassinate the president, according to the Colombian police.

Thus, the Colombian security forces reiterate what was expressed yesterday by President Iván Duque – that the ex-military officers had a role in the assassination “regardless of the level of knowledge they had.”

The Haitian government, plunged into crisis after the assassination, announced today that Moïse’s state funeral will be next July 23 in Cap-Haitien, in the north of the country, and the funeral services will begin three days before.